New Mexico Supreme Court: No Spousal Immunity For Burglary

New Mexico's highest court has ruled a territorial law on marital property doesn't prevent the prosecution of an estranged husband for burglary of a spouse's home.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated the aggravated burglary conviction of Gerard Parvilus for breaking into his estranged wife's apartment in Alamogordo in 2008.

Parvilus also was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the wife's boyfriend and kidnapping and assaulting her. Those convictions weren't at issue in the appeal. All three were in the Air Force at the time of the crimes.

The 1907 law recognizes married women's rights to hold property but says neither the husband nor the wife "can be excluded from the other's dwelling."

Parvilus and his wife had agreed the apartment was her residence and he had no key.

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